[filmscanners] RE: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@ix.netcom.com>]

I don't know of anyone who's specializing in putting together that sort of
package, and I don't think it's that big a market, compared to gaming. Maybe
enough of a market to support one or two companies on the web, but not
enough for your local shop.

I think the problem is that you can't specify a "standard" photo editing
system, because, unlike gaming, it involves lots of peripherals. People will
have widely varying preferences among these, and will generally already own
some of them. Many modern mobos have FireWire and USB2, but do you need a
SCSI card? Pretty much depends upon whether you have an old SCSI scanner.
What about the monitor? Some people have room for a giant 21" tube, while
others have the budget for an Apple Cinema LCD. Then there are colorimeters
and spectros for calibration--but they can be shared among multiple
machines, so really shouldn't be bundled. How much disk space do you need?
Depends upon whether you rely upon disk or CD. And DVD burners are starting
to come online now, but can they be trusted for archiving?

I'm not sure I agree with your preference for dual processors over maxmimum
clock speed. I'm not sure that all time-consuming operations in Photoshop
(e.g., fancy plug-ins) are written to support dual processors, even though
the core operations are. And dual CPU machines are a heck of a lot more
expensive. (And noisier, with the extra fan.)

About the only thing I can think of that all photo editing stations need,
and that gaming systems may not have, is a good 2D video card. Personally, I
like the Matrox cards--my G450 does 2048x1536 at 72Hz, and it has no DAC
glitches. The Millenium G450 can support dual monitors (only one color
managed, though), and the G550 can support digitial displays.

All in all, I think you should stick to specifying your own machine, and
having it custom built.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

> From: gannet@intnet.net
>
> The question is: does anyone know of any PC builders who are offering
> machines specifically tailored for the digital darkroom (DD)?
>
> You can get specialty gaming machines, digital audio workstations, 3D
> graphics workstations, digital video workstations, etc., etc., but I'm
> not seeing any PCs optimized for DD work.
>
> Yes, I can certainly spec out my own machine from a custom builder,
> and in fact I'm looking around at various builders to do just that.
> The problem is that there is a dearth of machines and options
> applicable to DD work.  For example, massive RAM and massive storage
> are a given.  Data redundancy and dual processors are highly
> desirable.  Absolute max CPU speed is nice but not really that
> important, and 3D graphics speed is not important.  The usual "custom
> machine starting points" you see on websites simply aren't geared for
> this.  Server class boxes are usually the only ones that come close,
> and they often have other unneeded features.
>
> As an editorial comment, I think these vendors are missing out on a
> market.  Why is it that we have lots of people lined up to pay
> multi-4-figure and 5-figure amounts for digital SLR systems, and yet
> these same folks are expected to limp along with an inadequate
> computer or else learn to be a hardware guru themselves and put one
> together?  I think there's money laying on this table.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body